I already loved Fred Armisen prior to seeing him live at his sold out performance at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on February 19, 2013; however, now that I’ve seen his show, I love him a lot more. Performing for over two hours, Fred Armisen presented a multi-media experience that featured videos (including one of Karen Carpenter miming along to an extended drum solo – good find Fred!), as yet unreleased clips from his hit show “Portlandia,” bits of stand up comedy, and musical performances that featured many special guests.

from left: Michael Lerner, Fred Armisen, Michael Caws

Fred Armisen brought out many special guests including Leigh Gorman, the bass player from Bow Wow Wow, Michael Lerner of Telekinesis, Michael Caws from Nada Surf, Marnie Stern and Leigh Nash from Sixpence None The Richer (who sang lead vocals on the show closer – a cover of TLC’s “Waterfalls”!)

Fred Armisen and Friends

Fred Armisen and his band played songs from many of the musical sketches that have either been on Portlandia or Saturday Night Live and he also took requests from the audience which included people requesting him to imitate various drummers or speak in different accents – and he is a master in both disciplines. In fact, a video of Fred Armisen and his many accents will be coming soon, so stay tuned! There was also a question and answer session with the crowd and Fred admitted that he was having so much fun, he didn’t want the night to end. The audience was in complete agreement! It’s not often that Fred performs a show like this, but when he does, you’ll definitely want to attend as you will have a blast. On a side note, I spotted Phoenix’ lead singer Thomas Mars and his wife director Sofia Coppola in the crowd. I did not take photos with them, but after the jump, you can see the set list as well as some of the people I did take photos with.